A day after the Church of North India (CNI) decided to resume in-person classes in its schools from Monday, several other private schools decided to resume physical classes from the same day.
Some of the schools said they were finding it difficult to explain to the parents why classes were being held on online platforms despite the improvement in weather.
Don Bosco School Park Circus, Mahadevi Birla World Academy, South City International School, Vivekananda Mission School (senior classes), Joka, have decided to resume in-person classes from Monday.
The bishop of the Calcutta diocese of the Church of North India, Reverend Paritosh Canning, is the head of 15 schools. The communication from the Bishop’s House to the school heads on Friday morning said the decision was taken in view of the “improvement in weather conditions”.
Meetings were held at several schools on Friday. The decision in favour of physical classes was communicated to the parents late on Friday and on Saturday.
Some schools spoke of the “growing anger among parents” as the schools continued with online classes.
“The parents had started taunting the school authorities,” one principal said.
Metro had earlier reported about the anger and disappointment of parents as the schools decided to switch to online classes and persisted with them even after the weather improved.
Schools also felt that they were struggling to complete the syllabus in senior classes and there had been a great loss of learning.
“We have been struggling to complete the syllabus and so we decided to call the students of Classes IX to XII to the campus. A decision on the other classes would be taken soon. We are a humid country and it cannot get cooler than this at this time of the year,” said Arnab Chanda, rector of Vivekananda Mission School.
At a time most schools were about to reopen or had just resumed physical classes after a long summer break, the state government extended the summer holidays to June 26. Government-run schools are all shut until June 27.
“We have been receiving mails from parents requesting us to switch to physical classes. The change in weather helped us to take the decision. We sent out notices on Saturday,” said John Bagul, principal of South City International School.
Bagul said that parents of students in pre-primary classes have told them that now with their offices fully functional, they were finding it difficult to supervise the online classes.
During the meetings some teachers were of the view that students had enough of online classes during the last two years and now its time to start offline lessons. Switching back to online mode was demotivating the children and there was a danger of them slipping back the old habits of not attending classes regularly.
“When students attended classes on campus for about a month in April (in the new session) we had seen changes in their concentration level, discipline and learning habits. Just when they were picking up and getting back to study mode came the break,” said Father Bikash Mondal, principal of Don Bosco School, Park Circus.
The school is sticking to its original schedule of reopening on Monday with physical classes and parents were sent a notice on Saturday, he said.
“Students in junior classes will have revision classes for a week before starting off with tests. For seniors, the tests will start right away,” Father Mondal said.
Revered Paritosh Canning, while speaking to The Telegraph on Friday had said: “Students have lost out on the habit of attending school… Only when they attend school for at least a month, will they settle down, and after that will be able to focus on academics.”
Private schools had to close early in May following a government order that asked them to suspend in-person classes. Schools that had kept the institutions open had received calls from government officials asking them to switch to online classes